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Google announces Chrome browser for iOS, arriving later today

Google today announced that it is launching its Chrome browser for iPhone and iPad at its Google I/O conference. It will be available for any Apple device running iOs 4.3 and above, later today.

Google Chrome for iOS features all of the tab and credential syncing features of Chrome for Android, allowing you to carry over your settings and browsing from any device to the iPhone and iPad. There is also an incognito mode, allowing you to browse with no history easily on a per-tab basis.

The announcement was followed by Google demonstrating this various tab synchronization capabilities of Chrome from one computer to another and across to mobile devices, allowing you to carry your tabs, settings and more with you across Chromebooks, other laptops and mobile devices.

The interesting thing about this is that Google Chrome will be using Apple’s default Webkit browsing view, but will likely lack some enhancements that Apple reserves for its Safari browser. These include the Nitro JavaScript engine which significantly sped up performance in Safari usage on devices running operating systems older than iOS 5.

The biggest hurdle that Chrome faces, of course, is that it cannot be set as the default browser on iOS devices, that’s capability that Apple also reserves for Safari. So, while you can use the browser til your heart’s content, it will not be the default handler for any URLs clicked. That’s a huge hurdle to overcome.